TY - JOUR TI - Emergence of behaviour in a self-organized living matter network AU - Fleig, Philipp AU - Kramar, Mirna AU - Wilczek, Michael AU - Alim, Karen A2 - Levine, Herbert A2 - Barkai, Naama VL - 11 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/01/21 SP - e62863 C1 - eLife 2022;11:e62863 DO - 10.7554/eLife.62863 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.62863 AB - What is the origin of behaviour? Although typically associated with a nervous system, simple organisms also show complex behaviours. Among them, the slime mold Physarum polycephalum, a giant single cell, is ideally suited to study emergence of behaviour. Here, we show how locomotion and morphological adaptation behaviour emerge from self-organized patterns of rhythmic contractions of the actomyosin lining of the tubes making up the network-shaped organism. We quantify the spatio-temporal contraction dynamics by decomposing experimentally recorded contraction patterns into spatial contraction modes. Notably, we find a continuous spectrum of modes, as opposed to a few dominant modes. Our data suggests that the continuous spectrum of modes allows for dynamic transitions between a plethora of specific behaviours with transitions marked by highly irregular contraction states. By mapping specific behaviours to states of active contractions, we provide the basis to understand behaviour’s complexity as a function of biomechanical dynamics. KW - ethology KW - flow network KW - unicellular KW - self-organisation KW - living matter JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -